The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road to heaven is likely paved similarly.
A big influence of this article was the current political climate, especially regarding politically correct (PC) culture. Words hold incredible power. They can drive a civil rights movement. They can lead to a dictatorship and attempted genocide. They can inform an entire generation on how to live their life. Do not neglect the impact of certain words (in particular, racial slurs) on certain individuals. I do not mean individuals as in groups of people, but specific people that are hearing the words you say. Recognize your intention, examine your impact, and create and execute a communication plan. When in doubt, refrain from using certain language or ask the person about the word/phrase in question. Let us unite with words, not divide.
So, what meaning did the quote below the picture give us? Objective morality is independent of intention. Good or bad intentions do not determine the how an action is received. This raises the problem of what determines the perceived goodness of an action. I think too often people, especially young people, focus on the intention of the action as bearing the most weight, exclaiming “I didn’t mean to!” But is intention an acceptable piece of evidence to justify actions? I argue impact, not intention, is the key factor.
Intention only exists within a very limited scope: your head. To everyone else, intention has as much practical relevance as unicorns and leprechauns. It is imaginary and effectively inconsequential. Intention is only consequential when it manifests itself in action and an associated effect; however, if you can determine intention from an action, then you can consider it being more than just intention since it manifested itself demonstrably. Considering this, morality and influence are independent of one’s intentions. Influence being defined here as the effect on people and things. This is separate from the popular connotations of the word in Instagram or as analogous to legacy.
Impact is the essential factor in judging an action’s goodness or morality. A simple explanation for this statement is that impact is observable and therefore, measurable. Unlike imaginary intention, impact can be recorded and placed on a spectrum. A spectrum more layered than linear, more qualitative than quantitative, but discernible nonetheless. This lends itself to be useful as an objective attribute on which to build a case around. Impact can be used in support or against morality of actions, but measuring impact is not a simple task. Perspective and framing are imperative when measuring impact. Take the clipper ships for example. New aquatic transport technology allowed for faster long-distance transportation sounds like an unequivocally good action; however, it directly caused the Irish Potato Famine. With the dramatically faster ships (five-week journey turning into only 12 days), the native North American fungus on the potatoes could survive the entire trip and infect Ireland’s crops causing the Great Famine. From a technological and transportation perspective, clipper ships were an overwhelming success and net benefit. From a sociological perspective, the invention of the clippers strongly influenced (many argue caused) the death of hundreds of thousands of people. Comparing the technological and sociological impacts is something that has and always will be discussed and subjectively interpreted.
While this is all useful information and logic, how can we apply it to our lives as to create knowledge? Here are three steps to leverage the above information as best as I see fit:
recognize your intention, examine your intended impact, communicate so that the intended impact is actualized.
First, recognize your intention. Why do you want to act or say the things you want to say? Are you sharing information, persuading your position, providing entertainment, et cetera? Realizing your own intentions is the first step to driving your impact. Next, examine your intended impact. Very similar step to recognizing your intention with an added layer of sympathy with the audience. Understanding your audience, deciding what they should take away from this interaction, and having a goal for what their follow-up actions should look like will help drive you to effectively communicate with intention. Lastly, and most importantly, synthesize all this information to create a communication plan to actualize your intentions and achieve your goals. There are entire books and studies dedicated to communication, which I implore you to access and study if you truly want to improve your communication skills and increase your impact.
I encourage you to share what you learn with others, even if it’s as simple as loaning a book or sharing an interesting link to a friend. The more organized might even have a type of book club where each person reads a different source on effective communication and shares their learnings once everyone is done. (If that happens, please document it and share it with me! I’d love to know how it goes.)
